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Wednesday, January 11, 2012

HIT LIST By Jack Heath. Sydney: Pan Macmillan, 2010

Ash and Benjamin are teenage thieves working for a
mysterious figure called Hammond Buckland. Actually, Ash is the one who does
most of the running around; Benjamin is her admiring helper, who does the
technical stuff.

Ash had started off as a straight thief, trying to get money
to solve the family financial problems, but has started to feel guilty about it
and is now only stealing things that have been stolen by others, to return them
to their rightful owners…for a price.

Now, she and Benjamin will travel to the heart of the
world’s top technology facility in response to an SOS from someone called
Alice. Rescuing a kidnapped girl sounds good. The only trouble is, there are
others who have the same goal and are prepared to kill to achieve it – and send
in hit men and hit teams. And who is the Ghost even the hit team are terrified
of?

It’s a nice, easy-to-read thriller for teenagers and I like
that the author has written it from the girl’s viewpoint, meaning both girls
and boys can enjoy it. I liked that Ash is not confident about her own
attractions and doesn’t have friends apart from Benjamin. I liked that Benjamin
was a nerdy type, not the usual athletic hunk. And wouldn’t we all like to
imagine ourselves running around major places in the world, kicking ass?

You can really enjoy it if you’re prepared to suspend some
disbelief. Like - telling your dad that you’re going for a sleepover at a
friend’s place and to please pick you up from school next day and then
travelling – without any paperwork whatsoever, it seems! – from Australia to
the US and spending the next however many hours having adventures and being
followed overseas by various other characters who are after you, who arrive in
plenty of time to threaten you. (Time zones, anyone?) One of whom, by the way,
has just been badly injured and really shouldn’t be out of bed?

But this probably says more about me and my attitude to
thrillers than it does about the author or his editor. I have read Dan Brown’s TheDa Vinci Code which has sold millions of copies and was non-stop adventure and all I
could think of, when I’d finished it, was that no one ever slept, ate or went
to the bathroom in the 24 hours in which the book is set and no one seemed even
remotely tired at the end. Thrillers are like that. Nobody would read them if
they had people stop for a rest. Get over it, Sue.

So I’m just going to make one nitpick: the author has done a
lot of research about the big things, but there are some small things that
could have done with checking. As far as I know, alimony is very rare in
Australia, can be paid to either partner depending on the circumstances, if
they can’t support themselves, and child support is paid to the parent who has
the child. Admittedly this is usually the mother, but in this case Ash lives
with her father and at one point they discuss the alimony and child support
he’s paying to her mother, who had left them and has a well-paid job. He’s
clearly being ripped off here! Someone has not told Ash’s father the law, it
seems.

Just a nitpick on my part. And of course, Ash’s home
location is kept vague, but it’s not in the US and the terms used are mostly
Australian.

This is the second of two novels (there’s also a short
story), but I haven’t read the first. It pretty much stands alone, though I
suspect it might be better to read the first one before this.

Go on, read it. It’s not too long for even a reluctant
reader and it’s fun.

About Me

I'm a writer, librarian, book reviewer, educator. I live in a beachside suburb of Melbourne with a lot of pot plants, but no cats. I slush fiction for Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine and hope that each one that arrives is going to be a potential Hugo winner.